Hunter Biden Controversy

Image courtesy of the New York Post 

By Franchetta Groves

During an election cycle, there are controversies and scandals as people’s skeletons are dug out of the closet. The Biden family is facing the latest round of mudslinging this time for Hunter Biden’s employment with  Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings. Senate Republicans have released a report which followed a yearlong investigation of the possible corruption this shows. 

In this report, led by Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Senate Republicans argue that Hunter Biden’s position on the board led to a conflict of interest. The controversy arose due to emails between Hunter Biden and a senior executive, Vadym Pozharskyi, indicating that they were a part of a foreign intelligence operation. This report was first published by the New York Post, which claimed that the emails showed a Burisma executive discussing with Hunter the prospect of meeting his father, Joe Biden, when Biden was the vice president in 2015. 

The New York Post’s article claims that Pozharskyi questioned Biden on how he could “use his influence” on the company’s behalf. The criticism that Biden faces is that may prove that he has had a hand in his son’s employment overseas when previously he has claimed that he has, “never talked to son Hunter about overseas business dealings.”

The email contains a message between Hunter Biden and Pozharskyi which indicates that Vice President Biden had met with them previously. Pozharskyi wrote to Biden saying, “Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together. It’s realty [sic] an honor and pleasure,” 

Photo courtesy of the New York Posts 

Along with the emails, which allegedly trapped Joe Biden in a lie, the New York Post reported that there were also videos of Hunter Biden abusing crack and engaging in a sex act. 

The emails were obtained in April of 2019 from an unidentified person who dropped off a water damaged MacBook Pro at a computer repair shop in Delaware. The owner of the shop, Mac Isaac, couldn’t identify the individual as Hunter Biden for sure. Three months later once he had discovered the materials on the laptop, he contacted the authorities and reported it to the FBI. However, he claims that those at the FBI did not want to take a hard copy of his findings. Later in December 2019, Isaac reached out to Rudy Guiliani’s lawyer while he was traveling in Ukraine, but it is unclear whether he officially obtained the documents then. 

This controversy was occurring at the same time as Trump’s impeachment hearings were taking place. Leading Trump and Guiliani to point towards Burisma and Biden saying that this was where the real corruption was taking place. Others on the other hand argue that while Hunter Biden’s move to work with a company like Burisma was not the smartest move, it was done by Joe Biden’s son, not the presidential candidate. It is argued that American capitalizations in emails from Pozharskyi raise questions about the authenticity of the emails. 

“I think the Hunter Biden scandal, if true, is another of the long lists of reasons for why Biden would be an incompetent president,” quoted sophomore politics major Catriona Fee. “I’m concerned at the level of censorship the mainstream media is taking to prevent voters from informing themselves about this scandal before they vote.” 

Others see this outcry over Hunter Biden as a non-issue which is incorrectly being used to attack Joe Biden. 

“This is smoke without a fire. Hunter Biden erred. His father has said so quietly but clearly,” wrote David Ignatius in the Washington Post,  “He should get on with the business of trying to put the country back together after Trump’s ruinous presidency.”